I played 100+ runs of Hades while it was in early access, and most of those were from the first year of early access. Back around the time I started playing it you unlocked heat from defeating the bone hydra, because that's how long the game was at the time. And heat also worked quite different, it has changed a lot since then. Eventually Elysium was added, which I don't think I ever cleared. I also started to unlock titan's blood in early access.
When I loaded up the save after the 1.0 release, both heat and the ability to modify weapons with titan's blood was already unlocked, which kind of made it feel like cheating. The game is balanced differently now, so having those things unlocked before even going past the third world felt so wrong that I decide to erase that save file and start over.
I think I've done about 30 runs since then, and I've clear Elysium once. I thought I was going to play it so much more now when it's out, but I've instead kept myself occupied with retroachievements instead. I hope to get through Hades before the end of the year though. I want to be able to know most of it before listening to the GOTY deliberations.
Haha, looking at the comments and people are seemingly genuinely surprised that it happened?
I always thought of this feature as wrestling: There's a lot of work put into it behind the scenes, but ultimately the participants already know what the outcome is. It also ended on episode 10. Not 8, 9, 13 or 26. 10! That's a number that psychologically brings wight on its own.
Also, I doubt that Abby would allow herself to run a feature that for several months, perhaps even a year if needed, that could encourage a large amount of people to spam another public figure to come on and play on that feature.
Great work on the feature, though. Although I didn't follow it, I'm glad that a lot of people found it enjoyable.
A rogue-like that I really like, and that I think was very underrated, is Brut@l.
@brad and @unastrike did a quick look back in 2016, which instantly sold me on it.
I remember being very surprised when the GOTY deliberations came and went without any mention of the game whatsoever. Not even in the Best Style category.
Hades is weird in that you have to escape 10 times to get the actual ending, I've got 8 escapes out of 43 attempts now, but at this point I've done it with every weapon and I just want to see the credits roll already. I can't imagine most players will actually take the time to beat it ten times.
Maybe not everyone will make it through everything. But i sure will. I did 100+ attempts over the course of early access, and some of which were considered clearing the game at the time since they added more levels over time.
I always go for the doors with two boons as the reward. You get to pick one of them before the encounter starts. Then the other one will add extra elements to the encounter, and afterwards you get to pick that one up as well. So you are ending up with two boons from one encounter.
Also @vinny, the passive upgrade 'Boiling Blood' is not affected from more than one cast projectile attached to an enemy. Doesn't matter if you attach one or three of them, you will get the same bonus out of it. The cast itself do a bit of good initial damage as it hits, though, so it's still a good burst if you want to take down one enemy quicker.
Might be worth pointing out that when the game says something affects your "Attack" it is specifically only talking about the attacks that come from your main attack button, not your Cast or Special, so depending on your weapon and boon setup the "Take damage every time you attack" penalty on Chaos is sometimes no big deal at all!
That's something that took me a couple of runs to notice, even with the tooltip on the right. I think a lot of people are going to get confused by the way it's phrased. It would be much better if it said 'main attack' to make it clearer.
I've gone about 2 months without showering. Not because of the pandemic, but because of living alone combined with suffering from severe depression, social anxiety and GAD.
Jesus Christ, there's an incredible amount of strawmanning going on.
- No one is arguing that podcasters should be infallible. Mistakes have and will happen. What a lot of people want to see is a better awareness of how these mistakes happen and a substantive commitment to trying to prevent them - especially given how GB has actively mission-stated safe spacing and inclusivity. Both Abby's immediate response to last week's podcast and her statement in this one falls very short.
- No one challenges Abby's intent at platforming Merritt K. Abby has already said she was first made aware of the allegations midway through the 277 stream, and there is absolutely no reason to doubt her. It is her actions after the fact - the minimal producer's note effectively hidden (regardless of intent), the silence in the aftermath, and how insufficient this statement is - that rankles. This has to be a learning experience, and I don't have faith in Abby's character (or GB in general, tbh) to be proactive with the introspection needed to make effective changes. I remember Ryan Davis' blog after yelling a homosexual slur on a stream. It was posted immediately afterwards, was definitive with its intent, read genuinely remorseful, and acknowledged and took ownership of the harm it caused. Abby hits a lot of the buzzwords but ultimately was a 'Sorry you were offended' whilst decrying erasure (yet also deleting her tweet promoting the podcast). It is a gesture of an apology.
- If you think the people who have spoken out "need real problems", are angry at a WOMAN IN MY GB, or simply don't care about the accusations levelled against Merritt: grow the fuck up. This isn't people dementedly ranting about GotY or whining about Sims or Nancy Drew videos; Abby platformed someone accused of abuse and has openly espoused anti-queer views. Your apathy and "more women prison guards" attitudes is what enables abusers to operate in these spaces.
I remember that incident and blog post from Ryan. It was a dumb thing to say, especially on a livestream. But he also followed up as soon as possible with a thorough apology that appeared at the top of the main page so no one who visited the site could miss it.
Although I'd hoped for this recent event to have been addressed sooner and better, there are some differences to keep in mind.
1. It was a staff member that said something offensive, not a guest, meaning it was even more important that an apology from Ryan was needed.
2. People who watched that The Running Of The Lanterns livestream years ago were most likely people who visited the site regularly, therefore it made a lot more sense to have the apology written and posted here. Something like that would still not be seen by all of those who listen to the podcast but never visits the site. Which is a lot of people, based on what the staff has said many times over the years. Editing in something at the start of the podcast would have been the best, but the second best was to at least mention it on the next episode.
That said, I agree on that I'd expected something better to be said in an apology. Especially after the hearing all of the staff calling out others for not addressing similar mistakes in time and properly.
Merrit is a bad person and Abby made an innocent mistake and has done the best she can to own up to it.
People hounding Abby about the insufficiency of the Episode Notes blurb or for posting the episode in the first place need to chill the fuck out and realize there are likely technical and/or business reasons behind the scenes for which Abby is not able to make that call on her own. Consider that some stuff may be out her hands or are not her decision to make.
I enjoyed the episode and it was great seeing Mary and Riana. I loved the idea of bringing on more women's voices to the podcast. Thank you Abby!
Seems like a situation where getting in contact and discussing it with a boss and/or colleagues would solve that. They have recorded and attached disclaimers in audio format multiple times in the past. It's not unheard of on this site, let alone podcasts in general.
My first thought when I heard about what was going on was that they should probably make one such edit to this episode.
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